Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security, fr

Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security, freedom.

-- Tom

 

Obviously, a lot of politicians in the UK are walking around with heavier pockets these days.

 

Re: Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security

Hey, it's all good. Anonymity/privacy may become very popular.

 

Re: Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security

The way this Bill passed was a disgrace because:

1. Both Labour and Conservatives rolled over for the private interests that lobbied them hard. In other words they sold out.

2. Tens of thousands of people (including me) wrote to their MP demanding that the Bill shouldn't go ahead in its current state. I don't know about the others but I didn't even get a reply. I think that a majority of people in the UK would be against it if it hadn't been snuck through and the measures had been explained to them. Virtually all ISPs and people having open Wifi are against it.

3. The draconian powers of disconnection, web site blocking, IP harvesting were justified on the basis of a faulty argument that had been taken verbatim from the mouths of vested interests; that illegal downloads amount to lost sales. There has never been any convincing evidence put forward for this. The only evidence that has been shown to have a measure of truth is that those downloading illegally tend to spend more on legitimate content than those that don't.

4. Various amendments were made to the Bill at the latest possible stage to avoid having to debate them.

5. Most of the MPs voting on the Bill were not even in the House to debate the damned thing (we have a Parliament channel here in the UK which shows live coverage) They were just pressured by their party into voting for this stitch-up.

6. Some of the measures in the Bill look like they over turn the presumption of innocence. They plan for example, to give rights holders the power to demand action be taken against you without them needing to go through the court or provide any evidence. ISPs such as Talk Talk are even threatening not to abide by it which gives you a sense of the scale of this biased piece of crap they call a law.

 

Just another step in the MPAA/RIAA plan to internationalize the DMCA. On to ACTA.